The present disclosure relates generally to a floor assembly and floor securing apparatus and, more particularly, to a floor assembly and floor securing apparatus for securing floor sheet to structural components of refrigerated trailers.
Refrigerated trailers need to be securely assembled to withstand the rigors of a long service life while minimizing manufacturing and materials costs. Many prior art embodiments require placing the flooring materials in place, drilling holes through the flooring materials into the floor assembly substructure, and securing the flooring materials with an attachment device. These methods for securing a floor require a significant amount of labor and require a lot of movement by the workers placing the flooring materials and drilling and then moving to the next spot to drill. Further, the skills of the laborer placing the materials not only affect labor costs, but material cost as well. Inefficient placement may result in trimming flooring materials that increase the amount of materials discarded. Further still, prior art floor securing apparatuses may induce stress in the floor materials causing the floor materials to fatigue and break.
Accordingly, in a floor securing apparatus and floor assembly, there is a need to minimize the amount of labor required to place and secure the flooring materials and reduce or eliminate wasted materials. Further, there is a need to minimize stress introduced by securing the floor materials to the floor assembly substructure to insure a long and maintenance free service life.